Susan,

The term is GDI (eye) -- which stands for Graphic Device Interface.  It is
one of the three core pieces of windows.  Windows has three main
"supervisors" (executables) that control the "employees" (DLLs).

First is the Kernel (KRNL386.EXE), it's main job is to load and unload all
the applications which you use.

Second is the Graphic Device Interface (GDI.EXE) which manages the
graphics and printing.

And third, is the Input/Output controller (USER.EXE) which is the busiest
of the three since it's main job is to manage and control all input (i.e.
keyboard, mouse, modem, scanner, comm ports, etc) and all output devices
(speaker, sound card, modem, comm ports, video card, etc)

When we speak of system resources, we are talking about the RAM that has
been reserved for exclusive use by USER.EXE and also by GDI.EXE.  And
naturally, the percentage is a measure of how much of that reserved memory
is left. (no it can not be increased)

When you first boot windows -- before loading any applications -- you
should see a free resources measurement in the high 80's.  As you load in
applications and start working, this value will decline as more and more
applications are opened.  When you close applications, they should release
the resources and return them to the "pool" for use by other apps --
thereby increasing the percentage of free resources.

That is the way it SHOULD work.  Unfortunately, there are many poorly
developed programs that either hog unneeded resources -- or worse -- do
not release them when the app closes.
To give you an example, I am using MS Outlook Express for email.  When I
start my PC, the system resources (and user resources) are at 88% as soon
as I start OE, the resources immediately drop to 67% and stay there.  Now,
if I also open MSIE4, the resources only drop to 63% while IE is running.
When I close IE, the resources float back up to 65% (not quite a full
recovery).

Now if I do the same with Netscape 4.5, the resources drop from the
initial 67% down to 57% and when I close NC, the resources only come back
up to 62% (much less efficient than IE).

In either case, when I close Outlook Express, my resources jump back up to
the low 80's when NC has been running or to the mid/upper 80's if only IE
had been used.  But they never return to the 88% even if OE was the only
program running.

In contrast to this,  I use Time & Chaos as my PIM (appointment book) and
I still use the old windows 3.x version (I think they traded a lot of
valuable features for fluff and lower performance when they released their
win9x version - but that's another story).  When I open and close T&C, my
resources go right back to the same levels as before I ran the
application.  In other words, it is a very clean running program that does
not leave any "residue" when it closes.

Now that you have a basic understanding, on to your questions.....Why are
there so many different opinions?  And what is the "magic" number for you?
The reason for the differences in opinion are because people use their PCs
for different work and they are usually using their own PC as a reference
point.  Everyone has their own "magic" number, in general, you should see
85-90% free when the PC first starts up,  It will drop as you use
applications (usually into the 65-75% range) and then climb back up into
the mid 80's when you close the apps.  If you open several applications at
once, then the resources will probably dip down into the 50's, and I've
seen them down in the 40's and still working fine.

Is there a performance "hit" with lower resource levels?  Yes, but as long
as the resources are in the 50's (or higher) you would probably need a
precision digital stop watch to measure it.

Jim Meagher
=====
Micro Solutions Consulting        Member of The HTML Writers Guild
http://www.ezy.net/~microsol     International Webmasters Association
410-543-8996                MS Site Builder Network - Level 2 member
=====
-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Hays <[log in to unmask]>


>I clicked on my Resource Meter to check on my resources.  Along with
System
>and User, there is also GDL.  What does GDL stand for and what percentage
>should that be?

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